


The Dragon of Allowton Castle

by Annariel



Category: Primeval
Genre: Gen, Mission Fic, Nobody is Dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 17:39:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9000316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: It is Christmas Eve at Allowton Castle and the exclusive annual tourney is about to start.  However the old legend of the Dragon of Allowton Castle is about to prove to have more than a grain of truth to it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheLibranIniquity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLibranIniquity/gifts).



> Thanks to fredbassett for beta-reading.
> 
> Set in an AU where no one died or left the ARC.

The Christmas Eve Tourney at Allowton Castle was an elaborate and expensive affair. Lester's wife had roped him into helping with the organisation early on in their marriage and he'd never quite managed to throw off the commitment, even though the marriage itself was now over. It was all in aid of charity and Lester liked the fact that, although the official tickets were eye-wateringly expensive, local people could get them at far more reasonable rates.

Lists were set up in the castle's yard for the "jousting" which was the main event of the tourney, but before that there were jugglers, acrobats and story-tellers mingling with the crowd. Trestle tables covered with red, green and gold tablecloths and loaded with food, beer and mulled wine were set out both inside in the castle's Great Hall and outside in the tournament yard. People roamed freely between the two. It was a fine crisp winter day, which was a relief. Lester still recalled the year it had rained solidly all Christmas Eve and the joust had been watched by a small, subdued and damp few who had then hastened back indoors to join the people with far too much sense to stand in the rain watching two full grown men pretending to knock each other off horses.

"We've sold a good number of tickets this year. Miss Lewis did a good job with the publicity," Miss Higgins, the castle's Events' Manager, said to Lester as they stood watching the guests coming in through the castle gates.

"Miss Lewis used to work for a top PR firm. We were lucky she agreed to pitch in. She's one of my favourite employees, though don't tell her that. I'm glad you're pleased."

"There she is now. Miss Lewis, coo-eee!" Miss Higgins waved vigorously.

Jenny looked up from where she was talking to an anxious-looking man in a suit. She waved him off and walked over to join them.

"All going smoothly?" Lester asked.

"As smoothly as can be expected. A few minor confusions about the guest list, one local ticket that has been resold, and Merlin the Miraculous Magician has had to cancel because his daughter has the 'flu." 

"Most of which aren't your problem," Lester pointed out.

Jenny laughed. "True, but part of good PR is making sure the final result meets with the expectations you set up."

"However, they are my problem!" said Miss Higgins. "I hadn't heard about Merlin. I wonder if one of the jugglers can cover?"

"I wouldn't worry too much. I doubt anyone is here for the side attractions. As long as there is good food and a joust, you'll be fine. At least from a PR point of view."

"Still, I'll just go and see." Miss Higgins fluttered her fingers at them and then headed off in the direction of the Great Hall.

"To be honest, I mostly turned up tonight to check the tourney out myself. It sounded like fun."

Lester raised an eyebrow. "Nothing better to be doing on Christmas Eve?"

Jenny shook her head. "You know, James, sometimes I worry that the only people I socialise with any more are from work, and half of them are on duty this evening."

"I believe Professor Cutter is on leave."

Jenny gave Lester a look that would have curdled milk at several yards' distance. "The saner half are definitely the ones on duty this evening."

Lester wisely decided not to pursue the subject of Nick Cutter any further. "True, however if you are off duty, you should help yourself to some champagne. It's surprisingly good quality."

"I shall do just that!" Jenny snagged a glass from a passing waiter.

Lester helped himself to one as well. His role was advisory and he didn't have any specific duties. He was mostly there to make sure the various civil servants and dignitaries upon whom he'd managed to foist tickets were having a good time and meeting the people they wanted to meet. He didn't need to be stone cold sober to do that.

They wandered towards the food table opposite the lists. The focus there was very much on hot food with a variety of burners and hot plates, piled high with roast meat, chips and a few token green vegetables. Servers were piling helpings into bread rolls and handing them out. The event hadn't really started yet, and the rush for food had yet to occur. Lester contemplated the pork but decided he wasn't hungry just yet.

Behind the table two "knights" (one male and one female) were sitting on a couple of hay bales enjoying some rolls and next to them were two lads who would be playing a dragon later with their legs in a colourful padded dragon outfit, but their tops still wrapped in jacket and sweaters.

"All ready?" Lester asked.

The first knight, a red-haired re-enactor with at least twenty years' experience called Jeff Rosen nodded. "All ready, guv. We're planning the usual display. I will give the normal talk about medieval tournaments while Carol tilts at the quintain and so forth. Then we'll charge each other a couple of times after which these two will come out in their dragon outfit and we'll ``chase'' them down and stab them."

Jeff made scare quotes with his hands on the word chase because, as they all knew, the dragon costume was uncomfortable and unwieldy, with more than a small debt to the pantomime horse, and no one was going to be moving very fast in it.

"Where does the dragon fit in? Or is it a St. George thing?" Jenny asked.

"Something to do with the history of the castle. Mr. Hastleton is very fond of it," Carol said. "Makes a nice change from just pretending to knock each other off the horses though." Carol had been working with Jeff for a long time and they did a lot of local events.

Lester glanced at his watch. "Give it another half an hour Jenny, and you can get the full story from the owner of the castle himself. He likes to officially open the event with a bit of story-telling."

Lester and Jenny headed inside. The Great Hall was bright and festive with tasteful decorations hung around the walls, evergreen flower arrangements in stands and a large Christmas tree decorated entirely with white and silver on a raised dais at one end, next to a microphone.

By unspoken agreement, Jenny and Lester split up and began to circulate through the crowd making sure everything was proceeding smoothly. By the time two o'clock rolled around, the place was full. Ticket numbers had been carefully set over the years to make sure the event was busy but not heaving. After all, most of the guests were paying for an exclusive luxury experience.

* * *

"Hello and welcome to our fifth annual Tourney at Allowton Castle. This is the season of giving and your generosity will be much appreciated. This year our charities are the parish church renovation fund, Shelter and Medicin Sans Frontieres. 

"I hope you will indulge me in a little story-telling to give you a sense of the history of the tourney. It is based on the legend of the dragon of Allowton Castle. Original sources for the legend go back many hundreds of years and the story is believed to be Anglo-Saxon in origin but, as it is told these days, the story lives in the high medieval era.

"I want you to picture the scene... King Henry III is visiting the castle shortly after it was first built by my ancestor Richard de Vere. Sir Richard, naturally anxious to show off his brand-new home, arranged an elaborate tournament to welcome the King. There was a fair at the gates of the castle and the common folk got to play skittles and show off their skills with the bow. In the main castle yard the King's own champion was to fight a joust with Sir Henri Champaign who Sir Richard had invited over from France. However, the joust was never concluded for just after the first pass, in which neither knight succeeded in connecting his lance with the other, a vast dragon flew over the castle. The crowd scattered in terror. The dragon landed in the field of battle. A banquet had been laid out and the dragon began eating all the precious food provided to impress the king. Down went the roast pig, half a dozen pheasants and a side of beef. However, this distraction allowed the two knights to rally themselves. They rode up together behind the dragon, their lances at the ready. They pierced its sides but were unable to deliver a killing blow for it rose up screeching from the devastated feast and flew off once more back to wherever it had come from. And that, my friends is the legend of Allowton Castle.

"Now, I suggest we all head outside to view the tourney before we consume too much of this excellent mulled wine."

The crowd applauded as Christopher Hastleton stepped down from the make-shift stage at one end of the Great Hall. Then there was a surge outside. The Great Hall opened directly onto the castle yard though three glass paned double-doors that opened onto a raised terrace. All three were flung open allowing the hall to empty quickly.

Heating lamps had been set up strategically around the castle yard, but even so most of the guests were wisely attired in thick jumpers and several produced woolly hats and gloves from pockets and handbags. Jenny hung back a little, aware that the paying guests deserved the better view. Jeff and Carol were now in full regalia, though neither had yet donned a helmet so their faces were visible. Carol was already mounted, but Jeff was on foot and he walked to the front to address the crowd.

Jenny was impressed at the way he managed to project his voice so it could be heard as he gave a quick run down of the mechanics of a joust, and knightly training. Carol rode up and down the lists a couple of times and tilted at a quintain by way of demonstration at an appropriate moment. That done, Jeff donned his helmet and walked over to where one of the "stable boys" (in fact a rather spotty teenage girl with the look of someone well-bred and very horsey) was holding his own horse by the mounting block. He clanked rather noisily onto its back and then rode to the far side of the lists. Carol took up her position at the other end and then both knights began what Jenny recognised as a fairly sedate canter towards each other. The effect was undeniably impressive, both lances went wide (Jenny suspected deliberately) and the crowd groaned in anticipation. Then the two horses turned.

The castle yard was suddenly flooded with light. Jenny's hand went to her mouth in shock as an anomaly unfolded gently about three metres up in the air, directly above the lists. She quickly located Lester in the crowd. He already had his mobile phone out. He caught her eye and gestured towards the Great Hall. It only took Jenny a moment to realise he wanted her to get all the punters back inside the castle. She spotted one of the stewards who was talking frantically to someone on a walkie talkie and grabbed him.

"We need to move everyone inside," she said urgently to the man. "Can you coordinate all the staff and get people moving."

He nodded and began talking into the walkie talkie again. Jenny glanced up at the anomaly with a feeling of foreboding. Jeff and Carol had both dismounted and were standing uncertainly to one side. She pushed her way over to them even as the crowd slowly began to move.

"Is this some sort of special effect?" Jeff asked as she drew close.

Jenny shook her head. "No, it's not, though we'll probably end up telling everyone that is what it was. Can you get yourselves and these horses somewhere safe inside. We don't want them startled by anything."

Jeff gave her a thoughtful look, but he nodded nonetheless. Jenny watched them depart. The crowd was being agonisingly slow and a truly scary number of people were snapping away at the anomaly on their mobile phones. 

It was at that point that a massive creature flew out of the anomaly. If Jenny were guessing, she would have said it was a pterodactyl but she was fairly certain that if one of the ARC scientists were here they would tell her she was wrong since her knowledge of pre-historic life wasn't anywhere near encyclopedic. The crowd grasped.

"Everyone keep moving," Lester shouted from where he was standing next to one of the doors.

The crowd, galvanised into more action, rapidly vanished into the house. The creature swooped low over the yard but didn't instantly attack and Jenny was relieved when she shut the last of the glass doors behind the final party guest. Glass doors weren't ideal, but given they consisted of small panes in wooden frames, she had some hopes they would deter the creature. Lester appeared almost instantly at her side.

"It's a Quetzalcoatlus," he said.

"You're getting very knowledgeable about these things."

He smiled wryly. "I took a photo on my phone and sent it to Jess Parker."

"Did she recognise it or look it up?"

"Who knows. Can you phone her? I want you to coordinate things here. See if you can get Jess patched into the security network. She's dispatching a team but I'm going to get ready with a distraction on one of the castle turrets."

"That sounds dangerous."

"Not that dangerous, don't worry, but if we can get it settled somewhere we can evacuate everyone from inside the castle."

Jenny pulled out her mobile phone and paged through her contacts for Jess. She dialed Jess's work number, watching as Lester threaded his way through the crowd and out of the Great Hall.

"Jess? It's Jenny," she said the moment she was through.

"Excellent! Lester said you would call. Can you stay on the line?"

Jenny took her phone away from her ear for a moment to check the battery. "I've certainly got enough power to keep going for a while."

"Good! I've dispatched a team to your location: Stephen, Becker and Emily. They should be with you in about fifteen minutes. I gather the castle is often open to the public and has a CCTV system. Is there any way you can put me in touch with someone technical so I can get patched in?"

Jenny glanced around and spotted Miss Higgins fluttering nervously through the crowd. She pushed her way over.

"Miss Higgins, do you know who controls the CCTV cameras?"

"What?" Miss Higgins blinked at her in surprise.

"The CCTV? Mr. Lester has contacted the Home Office and they want to see if they can get a view of the situation."

Jenny waved her phone vaguely at Miss Higgins.

"Oh, that will be Henrietta. You'll find her in the tech cubby hole behind the fireplace entrance."

Jenny glanced round and spotted a wood-panelled door just next to the grand fireplace that dominated the Great Hall.

"Thanks!" she said and hurried over. 

"Do you think this Quetzalcoatlus could be the origin of the castle's dragon legend?" Jenny asked Jess as she moved, more for something to say than genuine curiosity.

"Dragon legend?"

"The Dragon of Allowton Castle. The owner gave a speech about it earlier."

"I don't know, but I'll get Sarah to look it up. You never know when these things can be helpful."

Jenny reached the wooden door. She had to give it a sharp tug to get it open, but behind it was a bare wooden corridor with a perfectly ordinary domestic door just to her left.

Jenny had been in a few amateur dramatic productions in her time at university so she wasn't terribly surprised to open the door and find herself in theatre tech heaven. There were three lighting boards crammed against one wall with no less than six monitors mounted above them showing several areas of the castle. The rest of the room was crammed full of metal shelving with boxes and wires trailing from one to the other. Jenny stepped gingerly over several cables that snaked across the floor and wondered when Health and Safety had last been shown the room.

"Henrietta?" she asked.

A young woman in her twenties with jet black hair (almost certainly dyed, Jenny guessed) and black clothing looked up at her. She was wearing a headset and Jenny could see an excited looking red-head on the laptop screen in front of her.

"No time for Skyping. I need you to coordinate with someone."

"What?" Henrietta said.

Jenny leaned over, grabbed the mouse and exited the phone conversation on the laptop. "I need to put you in contact Jess Parker. She's on Skype. Her username is hpaddingtontook." 

"Hey!" Henrietta said with indignation.

"This is an emergency," Jenny said. "We need your attention. Jess Parker from the Anomaly Research Centre wants to Skype you."

As if on cue, the laptop pinged and a Skype contact request popped up. "She's going to want you to patch her into the CCTV feeds. Can you do that?"

Henrietta nodded and began typing on the laptop.

"OK Jess. You should be through in a minute. Anything else I can do?" Jenny asked.

"Not just at the moment. Sit tight. Keep the phone on and try to keep everyone in that Great Hall from wandering off."

Jenny smiled weakly at Henrietta as Jess's face popped up on her screen and went in search of Christopher Hastleton who was the closest thing to an authority figure in the place.

* * *

Lester was climbing a spiral staircase up to the tallest turret of Allowton Castle. He was carrying with him one of the gold tablecloths and was quietly cursing its bulk.

He paused at the small door to the exterior of the turret and dialled Jess's number. It was engaged and he realised she was probably keeping a line open to Jenny. He dialled a second number that reached a spare line on her control console and was pleased to hear the ring tone. Jess picked up almost instantly.

"Sir?"

"Hello Jess. I've got a bright shiny tablecloth and I'm up high on one of the castle turrets."

"Great! The notes on file say that Quetzalcoatlus' are easily distracted by shiny things. The team are only about ten minutes from your location and they've got spare headsets with them. At the moment, everything is contained so I'd like to recommend that you stay where you are until the team arrives. Stephen can come up to your position and attempt to tranquillise the creature if it's attracted to the tablecloth."

"Any luck with the CCTV?"

"Just getting patched through now."

Lester was just about to switch off when he heard excited shouting at the other end of the line. It was Sarah. 

"There's going to be a second anomaly!"

"What?" Lester and Jess said in unision.

"A second anomaly. I've just tracked down one of the original sources for the Legend of Allowton Castle. It was one of the texts we had digitised last year to put into that database of potential historical anomalies that Connor put together for us."

"OK. What does the legend say?"

"Here, listen to this!"

Lester could imagine Sarah, full of enthusiasm, no doubt juggling a laptop and a cup of coffee.

"'And then a second portal opened in the Great Hall and from it came a vast dragon that crawled upon four legs, unlike it's flying cousin that terrorised from the skies. Well, it doesn't actually say dragon because it's Anglo-Saxon. It's more like `vast worm' but you get the idea. It gets translated as dragon a lot and there's considerable debate about how the various legends of dragons from around Europe relate to each."

"Sarah, did you say Great Hall?" Jess interrupted.

"Ah yes, Great Hall, that's where the second anomaly opened, though it's difficult to know how the layout of the original building may relate to the castle today. Especially one like Allowton that's been messed around with so much."

Lester was relieved to hear Jess already speaking to Jenny and ordering an evacuation of the Great Hall, even as Sarah speculated in the background about floor-plans. There was a distinct note of disapproval in Sarah's voice, one thing Allowton was not was an unblemished medieval castle. Successive owners had put their century's stamp on it and these days it was about one tenth medieval castle, half eighteenth century stately home and the rest was closer to a theatrical set custom built to attract tourists than anything else. The Hasletons had caught on to the tourism game before listing buildings became fashionable.

* * *

"Mr. Hastleton, I have the Home Office on the line. They say we have to get everyone out of the hall now!" Jenny said urgently. "Can you still use the PA?"

"Probably? What should I say?"

"Just that the security services have everything under control. They are trying to work out what the thing is outside but can't confirm anything at present and have asked that people remove themselves from the Great Hall and move towards the castle main entrance, ready for evacuation."

Jenny still had the phone pressed to her ear and could hear Jess urging Sarah to come up with a best guess for where the old Great Hall might have been.

Christopher Hastleton climbed back onto the dais and switched on the microphone next to the Christmas tree. He cleared his throat.

"Ladies and Gentleman. If I can have your attention, please. Interesting as the events outside the window are, we have been in contact with the security services. They are still trying to ascertain what that creature is and where it has come from, but they have asked that we all move in an orderly fashion towards the entrance hall where they can start an evacuation. Members of staff will be happy to show you the way."

There was a dissatisfied murmur and Jenny could tell that several people were trying to work out if they could get a refund after they had left the premises or whether they should sit tight and demand compensation now. She jumped up onto the platform next to Christopher Hastleton.

"We understand you are all disappointed by the cancellation of the joust. We will be contacting everyone next week with details of refunds, however if you are not sure we have your contact details, please leave them in the guest book in the main entrance."

Jenny caught Mr. Hastleton's eye and he winced slightly but nodded his approval. Jenny wasn't too concerned. She had made sure the event had cancellation insurance before she got involved in the PR and although "invasion by Quetzalcoatlus" was unusual by insurance standards, most of the big underwriters had experience with the ARC by this point and Lester would whip them into line.

The murmuring persisted but it quieted down in tone and people began to move out of the doors. Once again, the crowd seemed to move agonisingly slowly. Jenny listened on her phone to Jess and Sarah who appeared to be having an exciting time with a radar survey from the 1990s that had been taken when the castle had had new drains dug, and an academic treatise on the layout of Anglo-Saxon settlements. "Well, my best guess is that one Great Hall has been built directly over the other," Sarah said with an air of finality.

Jenny scanned the hall. There were only a couple of dozen people left. The narrow corridor to the main entrance had jammed up though and everyone was moving at a shuffle. With a sinking heart, Jenny saw the air in front of one of the holly and ivy displays beginning to refract. Then an anomaly burst open like a flower. 

The remaining crowd gasped in surprise but with the corridor jammed they still couldn't get out of main entrance. Jenny jumped down from the stage and hurried to the door next to the fireplace, wrenching it open. 

"Shut the main door! The rest of you, through here!" she shouted.

There was a moment of confusion but then, with a roar, something that looked like a giant alligator burst through the anomaly and skidded across the tiled floor. There was a bang as someone had the good sense to close the far door and then an undignified rush of people across the hall towards the fireplace. Jenny held the door open and shouted, "Through! through!" while her heart pounded in fear.

The creature got its bearings, swinging its head from side to side and then, with a terrifying burst of speed it lunged after the last of the fleeing guests. Jenny held her breath, counted the last three through the side door and then nipped through it herself, pulling it shut behind her. She stood with her back against it, breathing deeply and listening as something thudded against it on the far side. Some of the plaster at the edge fell in a small trickle.

Henrietta popped her head out of her cubby hole. "Bloody hell!" she said, "I saw all that on the CCTV. Bloody hell!"

Shakily Jenny raised her mobile phone to her ear. "What's the situation, Jess?"

"For the moment that thing is stuck in the Great Hall, though I don't know how long those patio doors out to the yard will last if it gets it into its head to have a go at them. At the moment, it's more interested in you though."

The door at Jenny's back shuddered again and she hastily stepped away from it. "That door will hold, won't it?" she said. "These castles are pretty solidly built."

"That bit was part of some re-modelling in the 1970s. I wouldn't want to count on it holding," Sarah said.

"Thanks! That's very reassuring."

"You're going to be fine," Jess said firmly. "I've got eyes on you and a floor plan. But I want to move you away from the area before it breaks through."

Jenny did a quick head count of her chickens. "Weren't there more of you?" she asked, looking at the half dozen people in front of her.

"Some young men headed off on their own. Something about not skulking around like civilians," an elderly gentlemen said.

Jenny closed her eyes. "Did you get that, Jess?"

"Yes, I did. I've spotted them on the CCTV. I think they're trying to find an alternative route back to the Great Hall. Don't worry about them. The team have just arrived so I'll get Becker to scoop them up. Take your lot around to the cloister corridor. Henrietta should know the way."

Jenny looked over at Henrietta. "Cloister corridor?" she asked.

"This way," Henrietta said. "Everybody follow me."

* * *

"Most of the civilians are in the main entrance hall, awaiting evacuation. Once you've dealt with the Quetzalcoatlus we should be able to move them out to their cars. Then you can handle the Brachychampsa inside," Jess explained on the comms as the Hilux pulled up in the car park of Allowton castle.

Stephen leaned down to peer up and out of the car window. A large Pteranodon was swooping around the sky above Allowton castle.

"What's a Brachychampsa?" Emily asked.

"Pre-historic crocodile thing, big teeth and a nasty tail as well."

"How exactly do we deal with the Queztelcoatlus?" Becker asked.

"According to the notes, they are attracted by shiny things. Lester is up near one of the high turrets with a golden tablecloth. At my signal, he can dash out and wave it."

"How does that help?"

"If I can be up there with a tranquilliser rifle, I should be able to shoot it on the approach. It's not a bad plan," Stephen said.

"How are you going to get up there?" Becker asked.

"Jess?"

"There's a side entrance on a key pass lock on the west side of the castle. I've already changed the access code so it should accept your ARC pass. That will get all three of you into the castle."

Stephen looked up at the castle. It actually looked more like half a castle. While there was a traditional looking set of battlements they only formed a semi-circle leaving a wide gap with direct access to a yard space inside. Stephen could see brightly coloured heraldic flags inside the yard. Presumably that was where the joust had been planned. At the far end of the yard there was a portion of the castle that looked much more modern, a series of glass paned doors with elegant frames opened out onto the yard, above them were a row of impressive sash windows. The effect was of a perfectly proportioned piece of Georgian elegance dropped into an anarchic medieval mess. Stephen shook his head. He had formed the impression from Sarah's chatter on comms as they drove over that generations of the Hasletons had had more money than taste. Apparently, the inside was half Disney theme park, half stately home.

On Jess's directions, Becker drove the Hilux around to the side of the castle and parked on a wide tarmac path just opposite a small door. 

"I'll get out first and open the door and then the two of you can make a run for it," Becker said.

Emily caught Stephen's eye and smiled indulgently. The Quetzalcoatlus was circling a long way up and didn't seem particularly interested in the Hilux. Stephen smiled back at her but neither of them contradicted Becker. It was a sensible enough plan and there was no point in taking unnecessary risks.

Becker grabbed his EMD. He checked the skies once more and then jumped out of the car and made a sprint for the door. Stephen was watching the Quetzalcoatlus. It changed course.

"That thing may not be interested in cars, but running people definitely catch its eye," he said to Emily. 

Becker had the door open and was beckoning them over. 

"Ready?" Emily asked.

"Ready," Stephen agreed.

They both jumped out of the car in turn and sprinted across the few yards to the door. Stephen risked a look at the sky as he neared it. The Quetzalcoatlus had turned and was now diving towards them. Stephen ducked through the door and Becker quickly shut it behind him.

"We definitely need to deal with that before we try to evacuate anyone," Emily said.

"Where to now?" Stephen asked Jess.

"Jenny's lost five young men who seem to be circling back towards the Great Hall. Becker and Emily had better intercept them and get them to the main entrance ready for evacuation. Meanwhile, Stephen, if you take that staircase to your right, it will lead you straight up to Lester on the roof. Take one of the spare headsets with you."

"Roger that," Stephen acknowledged. He nodded at Becker and Emily and then ducked through a wooden doorway to his right. Wooden panelling gave way to stone and a narrow spiral staircase led upwards.

Stephen was a keen runner and took a certain amount of pride in his fitness, but even he was slightly out of breath when he reached Lester at the top of the stairs.

"Ah! There you are Mr. Hart. I'm glad you didn't get side-tracked by this crocodile thing. Jess says you have a headset for me."

Stephen handed over the spare headset. He nodded at the pile of thick golden material at Lester's feet. "Is that the tablecloth?"

"It is indeed. I suggest that I wave it and you shoot."

Stephen couldn't help a smile. "I'm not sure you should be putting yourself in danger."

"It's not something I relish. However, if you try to wave a tablecloth and shoot at the same time I'm fairly certain I will have a dead tracker on my hands and, as I'm sure you are aware, that would generate endless paperwork."

Stephen quirked his eyebrows. He was familiar enough with Lester by now to know that he cared greatly about their lives and also that the man would die before openly admitting as much. 

"I can see that risking your life with a prehistoric creature is definitely preferable to paperwork," Stephen said as deadpan as he could.

Lester graced him with one of his rare thin smiles. "I'm glad we understand each other. Are you ready?"

Stephen nodded. They pushed open the door and stepped out onto the roof. There was a stunning view from the turret. To the west was the market town of Allowton, red brick housing estates giving way to the older interior with its spires of church and town hall. To the east were rolling fields, currently lying fallow, with stick like trees dotted here and there. A brisk breeze was blowing but it didn't have too much bite, despite the time of year.

"Here goes," Lester said grimly and he shook out the tablecloth, standing to one side of the turret so the golden material fluttered out over the battlements and away from Stephen.

Stephen rested the arm steadying the rifle on a stone battlement and sighted at the Quetzalcoatlus. He recognised the moment where it caught sight of the tablecloth and wheeled around to face them.

"Come on," he murmured.

The creature wheeled again and Stephen could feel its thought processes as it tried to determine whether this strange shiny thing was dangerous or a prize to be captured. Just at the point where it seemed to have made up its mind and begun to approach there was a sudden commotion in the castle yard below them and it flinched aside.

Stephen groaned and looked down. Five men were in the yard. They had the heavyset build of people who exercised regularly. Their close-cropped hair suggested soldiers. They were all wearing the kind of smart casual outfits that suggested money, but then if they were at the joust they almost certainly had money.

"Hey, bird thing!" one of them shouted and waved his arms in the air.

`Drunk' Stephen thought detecting the slight slurring of speech.

"Those will be Jenny's missing guests," Lester said in irritation.

Stephen nodded. "Jess, where are Becker and Emily?"

"They'll be there any minute. Any chance of getting the creature's attention again?"

The five men in the yard were whooping and jumping up and down. One of them had grabbed a sword that had been discarded by the re-enactors and was waving it in the air where it glinted prettily in the winter sunshine.

"Not much," Stephen said gloomily.

"OK, hold tight. We'll get them out of the yard and then try again."

The Quetzalcoatlus reeled in a tight circle. Stephen could tell it was assessing these new people. Stephen hoped it was sufficiently cautious that the noise the men were making would keep it at a distance. But no such luck, after about a minute it suddenly dived down into the yard. Stephen was impressed by its speed and manoeuvrability even as he stared in despair at the drunken party guests.

"Look at it go!" he murmured.

Lester snorted beside him and Stephen was expecting some kind of scathing remark about scientists getting carried away admiring the wildlife but Lester eventually said, "It is pretty spectacular."

Becker suddenly burst out of the patio doors where the Great Hall was. Stephen watched in horrified fascination as man and diving Quetzalcoatlus headed for the same idiot waving a sword. Becker got there just in time, knocking the man to the ground. The creature swooped harmlessly over their heads. 

Emily let off two shots with her EMD from the edge of the yard, but she was too far away for them to carry enough charge to disable the creature and it rose up into the air once more. 

"I thought the Brachychampsa was in the Great Hall?" Stephen said as he figured out where the glass doors had led.

"It was, but it's broken down a door and gone after Jenny and her party. We need to get everyone evacuated quickly otherwise this is going to get bad quickly."

Becker was now surrounded by five belligerent and drunk young men. Stephen winced as one shoved him.

"If they are military, someone is going to be in an awful lot of trouble when they get back to base," Lester said from where he was standing.

"You'll make sure of that will you sir?"

"Be certain of it."

The Quetzalcoatlus was coming around for another dive. Becker was too hemmed in to use his gun safely. Emily was hanging back from the fray. Stephen guessed she thought a woman butting in would only exacerbate the problem at this point and she was probably correct. However, that meant she was too far away from the group to disable the Quetzalcoatlus with a shot if it attacked them again.

"This is going to get messy," Stephen muttered.

He looked over at Lester who scowled angrily. "Becker, I'm authorising you to use the EMD on those idiots if you don't have another option. That creature is going to attack soon."

Stephen saw Becker glance up at the sky. It was obvious to Stephen that the Quetzalcoatlus was going to dive at any second, but that might have been less obvious from the ground, and to someone with less skill in animal behaviour.

"Don't wait around, Becker. It's going to dive again," Stephen said.

At that moment two double doors on the far side of the castle yard burst open and to Stephen's amazement two hefty looking horses rode out. The people on their backs were dressed superficially like medieval knights, but Stephen saw they were wearing regular riding hats, not helmets.

"That's Jeff and Carol," Lester said urgently. "They're very competent on horseback and very down-to-earth. Becker, if they've got something planned, leave them room to execute it.

To Stephen's amazement, Jeff was carrying a large golden flag. He and Carol urged their horses into a gallop, along the length of the castle yard. The flag flickered and glinted in the sunshine.

"He must have seen what we were doing with the tablecloth," Lester said.

Stephen held his breath. The Quetzalcoatlus spotted the flash of gold and altered its course. 

"What's that thing's flying speed like?" Lester asked.

Stephen shrugged. "I have no idea whether or not it's faster than a galloping horse."

"Looks like we're about to find out."

The Quetzalcoatlus dived. The horses galloped. It just missed them and then pulled into a long low glide in the wake of the galloping beasts, still chasing them as they galloped through the wide entrance of the castle yard and into the long drive beyond.

"They've bought us some time at least. Becker see if you can get those idiots out of the yard!" Lester said.

* * *

Becker had established that the man in front of him was called "Tiny". It was presumably a joke, since he was a solid lump of muscle with a loud voice and belligerent attitude. He was also at that stage of drunkenness where his judgement was shot to hell, but he hadn't yet realised it.

"Give me one good reason why I should take any notice of some jumped up private security guard with delusions of grandeur." Tiny said, poking Becker in the chest with every other word. His accent could have cut diamond. 

His mates laughed.

"I'm accessing the guest list now," Jess said in Becker's ear. "I think he's probably Frederick Pinkerton, a `the honourable' no less, also currently at Sandhurst. Home for the holidays I imagine."

Becker didn't think any of this information really helped. He'd met enough jumped up officers in training, been one himself in fact, to recognise the symptoms. The man was dripping with privilege, probably the darling of his school rugby team and hadn't yet had the edges smoothed off by the realities of the army. Once drunk, the type could be pretty dangerous and Becker had orders about hitting or shooting civilians (and the advisability of not doing so). Still, Lester had given him permission. 

"You really do need to get indoors. It's urgent," Emily said.

Tiny leaned back with an expression halfway between a leer and a grin and said "Ooo err," in a high-pitched voice.

His mates laughed as if this were the funniest thing they'd heard all evening.

"Jeff and Carol are circling back on the horses," Stephen said. "You need to do something quickly."

"Where's that bird anyway?" Tiny said. "I want to sock it one, fucking thing."

Becker fired the EMD into the ground at Tiny's feet. "That was a warning shot."

Tiny's friends lapsed into an uneasy silence, obviously unsure, all of a sudden, about where this was going.

"Now, listen to me. I don't care who you think you are. My orders are to clear this yard and I've been authorised to shoot someone if I have to. This gun isn't lethal but believe you me, you do not want to get hit by a charge from it. Now, all of you, into the stable block."

"I don't believe you," Tiny said.

Becker dialled the charge on the EMD down to its lowest setting and then shot Tiny unceremoniously in the arm. Tiny cried out in surprise and doubled over.

"That was the lowest setting. Now, you two, help your mate into the stable block. The rest of you go with them!"

There was another moment of uncertainty and Becker shot the ground one more.

"Now!"

Two men grabbed hold of Tiny's arms and half dragged him, still gasping from the shock, over to the stables. Becker caught Emily's eye and they followed.

Moments later the two horsemen galloped back into the yard. The Quetzalcoatlus was unnervingly close behind them and it was shrieking noisily. Becker and Emily instinctively stationed themselves either side of the stable doors. Jeff and Carol galloped straight towards them without slowing. As they powered into the building, Becker and Emily pushed the large double doors shut behind them with a bang.

* * *

Jenny and her little group were hurrying down a long straight corridor with decorative stone pillars and elegant arches high up in the ceiling. Behind them somewhere she could hear heavy footsteps and the occasional crashing sound as if a large tail were banging against walls and floors.

"Where next?" she asked.

Henrietta answered, "Dungeons! The cell doors are really strong down there."

Jenny could see the sense in the idea, though she didn't much like the idea of locking herself in a dungeon.

"Jess? Is there some way out?"

"Not without leading that creature nearer to all the other guests. Henrietta's right, the dungeons are your best bet. I'm sorry," Jess sounded genuinely distraught and Jenny winced. 

"Dungeon it is then, but we'd better hurry."

Jenny thought the creature sounded closer. They plunged down some wide wooden steps. 

"Here we are," Henrietta said. 

In front of them were three large bays, each of which was blocked off by thickset heavy bars. A fake skeleton was manacled to a wall in the first bay, but the second two were empty. Henrietta stopped in front of one of them and pulled a bundle of keys out of a pocket.

"Just need to get this open. We keep them padlocked, part of telling the story."

Jenny saw that the cell door was closed by a bolt that was held in place by a chain and padlock.

"Hurry!" Jenny said.

She looked about her. There were a couple of low wooden benches pushed up against one wall, with straw decoratively strewn around their feet. She stuffed her phone into a pocket and hefted up one of the benches. It had a good weight but was still light enough for her to hold and, more importantly, swing.

Henrietta was fumbling with the keys. Something at the top of the stairs roared with anticipation. Jenny readied the bench and stood at the foot of the stairwell, where she was partially concealed by the wall.

"Got it!" Henrietta said just as a large crocodillian head appeared in front of Jenny.

"Everyone into the cell!" Jenny shouted while swinging the bench with all her might. 

The creature reared back in surprise as the wood smacked it across the snout. Jenny dropped the bench and dashed into the cell, pulling the iron door closed behind her and ramming the bolt across.

The creature roared in anger and threw itself against the bars. Everyone took two steps back in alarm. Henrietta had been correct though, the bars were made of strong stuff and didn't so much as bend a little.

Jenny fished her phone out of her pocket and raised it to her ear. "We're safe, at least for now!"

"Good," Jess said. "Hopefully it will lose interest and go away soon."

"Hopefully," Jenny said weakly as the creature threw itself against the bars a second time.

* * *

"I didn't like the look of you when I first saw you. I could sue you for assault, do you know that? I don't know what kind of a jumped-up excuse for private security you are, but I'm a professional!"

Tiny had recovered his ability to speak and it had not improved his attitude.

"No, you are not! You are a sorry excuse for the kind of no neck wonder that fails out of Sandhurst year in, year out. If you're going to squeal about getting hurt when you are disobeying orders in a dangerous situation while half-cut then you are not going to last very long!" Becker hissed.

"Becker, leave it, you don't have time for this. I've tracked down their CO. Believe me, they are going to be very sorry, very soon," Jess said.

Becker took a deep breath and deliberately took a step away from Tiny.

"You been reigned in by your master? Woof! Woof, little lap dog?" Tiny said. His followers chuckled in a subdued fashion but Becker got the sense that the reality of their situation was beginning to dawn on at least some of them.

"You and Emily need to chase the Brachychampsa. Leave them here. You should be able to keep between them and it. Stephen and Lester are dealing with the Quetzalcoatlus."

"Becker?" Emily said urgently.

"Leave them to us, mate. We'll make sure they don't trip over their sorry excuses for a pair of feet." Jeff had dismounted from his horse but was standing next to its stall looking distinctly threatening.

Becker took another deep breath and nodded. He gazed hard at Tiny's mates. "Stay!" he said.

Then he turned and headed out of the stables, Emily at his shoulder.

"Sorry about that," he muttered to her as they left.

"I've met worse, at least none of them asked me if I knew how to handle a gun."

"Only because they were too drunk and stupid to think of it."

* * *

Lester lowered the tablecloth and glanced at Stephen in irritation. "It seems to have lost its interest in shiny things."

The Quetzalcoatlus was on the ground in the centre of the castle yard helping itself to what Lester guessed had been an excellent hog roast.

"If Becker and Emily weren't occupied with the other creature they could probably nip out and get a good shot at it now."

"Can't be helped. Maybe if we got a little closer?"

Stephen nodded. "It will have finished the meat soon at any rate. Once it's no longer hungry it may regain its interest in the gold."

There was a wall-top walk around the semi-circle of the castle. Stephen and Lester climbed down a short staircase from the turret. They moved around the walkway until they were standing opposite the long table on which the hog roast had been placed.

Stephen settled the rifle once more. "Do you want to try giving it a call to attract its attention?"

"Not really, but I suppose needs must." Lester straightened his tie. "Oi! Pterodactyl thing! Look what I've got here!!!"

He waved the tablecloth. The Quetzalcoatlus looked up at his shout and cocked its head to one side. Lester waved the tablecloth again.

"Try running along the walkway," Stephen suggested.

Lester graced him with his best withering look. He was pretty certain acting as bait was not in his job description. Stephen raised his eyebrows and adopted an expression of bland innocence. Lester reflected that the ARC staff were all getting far too comfortable with him.

Lester shouted a second time, waved the tablecloth and then took off at a gentle jog along the walkway, letting the cloth flutter behind him in the breeze.

"We are about to attempt lift off!" Stephen shouted.

Lester glanced down. The Quetzalcoatlus was running along the ground flapping its wings rapidly. It looked supremely ungainly. Lester turned when he reached the next turret and ran back towards Stephen at a slower speed. The Quetzalcoatlus continued to bounce in a rather ungainly fashion across the castle yard.

"Can it actually take off?" Lester asked fascinated, stopping in front of Stephen.

Stephen shrugged. "There are competing theories. Now we get to find out. It certainly seems to think it can."

The creature had run the length of the castle yard before it showed any sign at all of leaving the ground, but then it slowly began to rise up in the air.

"Not the most elegant take off I've ever seen," Lester remarked.

"I'd like to see you manage it."

Stephen settled back down. "Now we need to figure out which direction it is going to approach from."

Lester watched as the Quetzalcoatlus rose into the sky and began circling above their heads. He waved the table cloth encouragingly. 

"It's going to come in low over the castle entrance," Stephen said.

Lester realised the creature's circle had settled into a glide. "Where do you want me?"

"Just stay where you are and keep waving the tablecloth. But be ready to duck if the sedative doesn't work quickly enough."

Lester bit back a cutting remark and kept waving the cloth. "In your own time," he felt the need to comment as the creature loomed larger and larger in the sky in front of him.

He heard the faint click of the tranquilliser dart being fired.

"Did it hit?" he asked.

"Yes! Throw the cloth over the side. If it heads to the ground it won't fall too far when the sedative takes effect."

Lester bundled up the tablecloth and tossed it over the battlements into the castle yard. Then he ducked behind the stonework. The Quetzalcoatlus zoomed just above his head, flew in a tight circle and glided down into the yard. Its landing was ungainly and uncoordinated. It pecked briefly at the cloth and then its head dropped to the ground.

"One down!" Stephen said.

* * *

"The Brachychampsa is still in the dungeon with Jenny. Stephen and Lester are already evacuating most of the other guests," Jess told Becker and Emily.

They were walking down a long colonnaded room with a number of passages and stairways leading off. According to Jess it was known as the "cloister corridor" and Becker could see why. It had that vague feel of a monastery or cathedral about it with the heavy stone columns and an arched roof. 

"This is a good place to face it," Becker said. "We've got plenty of escape routes and a long straight distance it will have to approach down."

Emily nodded. "We can conceal ourselves behind one of the pillars. All we have to do is lure it up here somehow."

"The main entrance to the dungeon is ahead of you at the end of the hall," Jess said.

"Even better. How fast does that thing move?"

"It wasn't so fast when it was chasing Jenny, but if its anything like a modern crocodile then it will be able to put on big bursts of speed so I wouldn't get too close."

"Emily, you take up position here and be ready for it when I come out of the dungeon area."

"This is a dangerous plan," Emily observed. "We should try making a noise first."

"Becker's right, I'm afraid. It probably won't hear anything up here. It's making quite a racket of its own in the dungeon."

"Just be ready to shoot it when I come running," Becker said.

* * *

Jenny's charges were tiring. Although they seemed to be perfectly safe in the cell, the Brachychampsa had not gone away and continued to throw itself at the bars, while its powerful tail sent the various bits and pieces of dungeon set dressing flying. An older woman was sitting in a corner with her face in her hands quietly crying while her husband tried to comfort her and Jenny could feel the terror and exhaustion building around her. She hoped no one would do anything stupid before help arrived.

"Becker is coming down to you now," Jess said. "Entrance you came down."

Jenny looked in the direction of the wide staircase at the far end of the dungeon. Becker appeared at the top of the stairs, his EMD held at the ready. He was at an awkward cramped angle, but he let off a shot in the direction of the Brachychampsa that caught it in the leg. It roared in anger, swept around and powered towards the stairs. Becker turned and ran back up them, taking two at a time. 

"OK, it's gone!" Jenny said.

"Right, lead everyone out by the door on the far side. It'll take you up into the castle kitchens. Take a right and that will get you to the main entrance where we're evacuating people. Close all the doors as you go to keep that thing busy if it loses interest in Becker."

"Right everyone! Time to go!" Jenny said, pulling back the bolt on the cell door and swinging it open.

* * *

Emily had found a good position next to one of the central pillars. She had a clear view down the colonnaded room and the pillar would provide some protection. 

"There's the girl! Where's that jumped-up toy soldier gone?"

She glanced up, irritated to see Tiny once again, followed by two of his friends.

"Jess, where did these people come from?" she demanded.

"They managed to get away from Jeff. Ignore them. Becker is coming!"

"That could be difficult."

Tiny walked past her and stood in her line of sight down the room. At that moment, Becker burst out of the door at the far end, running full tilt. Emily saw him start at the sight of the drunken soldier. He then darted to one side, probably hoping to lead the Brachychampsa away from the group. He was unlucky. The creature ignored him entirely and charged for Tiny. Emily heard the sound of Becker discharging his EMD.

There was nothing for it. Emily marched in front of Tiny who finally seemed to have grasped the peril of his situation and had frozen in place. She threw her EMD to her shoulder and as the creature bore down on them she let off one careful shot after another, each landing in the centre of its forehead. It began to slow. Tiny hadn't moved so Emily held her ground and carried on shooting. With only a couple of yards to go, the Brachychampsa slumped to the ground and skidded to a halt.

Emily took a deep breath.

"Emily, could you hand your headset to the Honourable Frederick Pinkerton, known to his friends as Tiny. I have a Colonel Madison on the phone who would like a word with him."

Emily smiled grimly, took out her earpiece and handed it to Tiny. "I think your commanding officer has some orders for you."

* * *

"It could be worse, I suppose," Becker remarked surveying the remains of the buffet table in the Great Hall. The food had been smashed and scattered, probably by the Brachychampsa when it first came out of the anomaly. Bright tinsel decorations trailed forlornly across the floorboards, mixing with over-turned evergreens and the remains of the Christmas tree.

"I don't quite see how. We've an awful lot of witnesses to calm down and the charity joust has been ruined." Jenny sounded disconsolate.

"On the other hand, nobody died and the vintage champagne is intact," Lester said. Several bottles of champagne were indeed fine, having been neatly stacked against a wall and protected by a fallen table. 

Emily gave Jenny a quick hug. "I'm sure the guests will understand."

"At least we have all the names and addresses. That will make contacting them easier," Jenny said.

"And that brings a certain satisfaction," Emily pointed out of the glass windows to where Tiny and his friends could be seen clearing up the remains of the hog roast stand.

"They're going to be on clean up duty for some time," Becker said with a great deal of relish in his voice.

"Excellent, well, I believe we should reconvene to the ARC." Lester hesitated ever-so-slightly before saying. "And I think everyone should take some of the champagne with us. I'd hate to see it go to waste."

* * *

It was almost Christmas Day before all the paperwork relative to Allowton Castle was in order. Jess smiled with satisfaction as she handed over a clear desk at the Anomaly Detection Device to Sadiq who was coming on shift for Christmas Day.

Jenny, sitting next to her, had spent several hours phoning the Tourney guests and persuading them not to talk to the media or post anything online. If Jess was any judge, it hadn't been particularly onerous as these things went, possibly because a lot of the guests were members of the establishment. Becker's report from the field was on Lester's desk. Since Emily and Stephen were still hanging around, Jess strongly suspected they had helped him write it. Becker loathed report writing, but Emily and Stephen were both, if not enthusiastic, at least moderately good at putting their thoughts on paper. Sarah had made extensive annotations to the database entry on the Dragon of Allowton Castle. She was talking animatedly to Stephen and Emily about her theories.

"Chocolate, no orange?" Becker asked, appearing magically at Jess's side with his usual post-operation offering.

Jess smiled happily at him and inspected the chocolate bar. "Green and Blacks? You're spoiling me."

"It is Christmas Eve."

"And given it's Christmas Eve, I think we can do better than a bar of chocolate."

Jess looked up to see Lester had come out of his office carrying a bottle of champagne. 

"Jenny, there should be some wine glasses in the side cupboard in my office, if you would be so kind? And there are the rest of the bottles to be fetched. They're on my desk."

Jenny grinned and hurried into Lester's Office, emerging with two boxes of glasses that she hastily unpacked onto her desk. Becker, Emily and Stephen quickly followed with the rest of the Champagne.

"Good God! How much of that stuff did you liberate?" Sarah asked.

"Don't worry, we left plenty behind," Stephen said.

Lester popped a cork with the minimum of fuss and began pouring the first glass. He handed it to Jess with a bow. 

She stood there, holding her glass of bubbly while the others fussed around, opening a second bottle before everyone had a glass.

Lester smiled at them benignly. "Thank you all of you for a job well done, both today and in all the time I've known you. I couldn't hope for a better team to work with." He coughed and looked a little taken aback at the emotion in his own voice.

Jenny grinned at him and raised her glass. "And to you too, James. Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" they all chorused.


End file.
